Voters in two counties will have a chance to voice that sentiment next week.

Del Norte and Tehama counties, with a combined population of about 91,000, will hold a June 3 vote on a measure that asks each county's board of supervisors to join a wider effort to form a state named Jefferson.

The efforts are merely advisory, encouraging local officials to further study the idea. The steps involved in trying to become the country's 51st state are steep, first requiring approval from the state Legislature, then from Congress.

Elected officials in four California counties have already voted to join the movement. Supervisors in a fifth county will vote June 10, while local bodies in other northern counties are awaiting the June 3 ballot results before deciding what to do.

The counties that could opt into California's movement - as many as 16, according to supporters - make up more than a quarter of the state's land mass but only a small portion of its population.

Aaron Funk, a secession supporter in Del Norte County, noted that 11 northern counties share just one senator in California's Legislature, compared to 20 for the greater Los Angeles area and 10 for the San Francisco Bay Area.

"Essentially, we have no representation whatsoever," he said.

The loss of millions of dollars for everything from infrastructure to schools is among the biggest worries of residents who oppose the secession movement. The Del Norte County Board of Education, which receives $US32 million ($A34.62 million) in funding from the state, voted to oppose the initiative.

If it passes, local Kevin Hendrick worries that officials will spend years studying how to create a new state rather than tackling concrete problems such as fixing a crumbling highway that is in danger of falling into the ocean.

"It's a lot of broad promises about things being better and representation being better," said Hendrick, who is leading the opposition in Del Norte. "But the more they talk, the less clear it becomes about how that's actually going to happen."